Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-07

whole social fabric were undermined. 1t
was the sudden darkening OF a shadow that
always hung in the horizon. The slaves
were in large majority, and had they risen,
though the final issue could not be doubted,
the Ives of every white on the plan
tation must have paid the forfeit. What
ever the right and wrong OF slavery might
have been, its existence demanded that no
outside interference should be tolerated. So
much was certain self-preseryation re-
quired this.
1 was, at the time of which l speak, a
well-grown lad, and had been for two ses-
sions to q boarding school, where had got
rio OF some portion-I will not say all-of
the superstition of my boyhood. The spirit
of adventure was beginning to exert it
self in me, and l had begun to feel sense
of enjoymentin overcoming the fears which
once mastered me, though, l must confess,
| had not entirely shaken off my belief in
the existence of ghosts-that is, did not
believe in them at all in the daytime, but
when night came | was not so certain
about it.
Duck hunting was my fayorite sport, and
the marshes on the river were fine ground
for them usually, but this season the
weather had been so singularly warm that
the sport had been poor, and though | had
secured every canal in the marsh and every
bend in the river as far as No Haid Pawn
hammock, as the stretch of drifted timber
and treacherous marsh was called that
marked the boundary line of that planta-
ton, | had had bad luck. Beyond that
point l had never penetrated, partly, no
doubt because OF the training of my
earlier years, and partly because the marsh
on either side of the hammock would have
mired cat. Often, as | watched with en-
vious eyes the wild ducks rise up over the
dense trees that surrounded the place and
cut straight for the deserted marshes in the
horseshoe, had had longing to invade
the mysterious domain, and crawl to the
edge of No Haid Pawn and get shot at
the fowl that foated ON its black surface,
but something had always deferred me,
and the long reaches of No Haid Pawn
were left to the wild fowl and the ghostly
rowerS. Finally, however, after a spell
whose high temperature was rather suited
to August than April, in desperation at
my ill-luck l determined to crafty nv
curiosity and try No Haid Pawn So one
afternoon, without telling anyone of my
intention, | crossed the mysterious bound
airy and struck through the swamp for the
unknown land
The marsh was far worse than had an
ticipated, and no one but duck-hunter as
experienced and Jealous as myself and as
indifferent to bitches, briers, mire and all
that make swamp, could have penetrated
it at all Even | never could have got on
If had not followed the one path that led
into the marsh, the reputed part of the
evil spirits, and, as it was, my progress was
both tedious and dangerous.
The track was a mysterious one. for
though | knew it had not been trodden by
q n
veritable "parf" lay. In some places it
was almost completely lost, and i would
fear should have to turn back, but an
overhanging branch or vine swinging
from one tree to another would furnish a
way 10 some spot to where the narrow trail
began again. In other spots old logs thrown
across the miry canals gave me an uncom-
Portable feeling as l reflected what feet had
last crossed on them. On both sides of
this trail the marsh was either an impen-
etrabie jungle or mire apparently bottom
less.
| shall never forget my sensations as
finally emerged from the woods into the
clearing, if that desolate waste of willows,
cane and swamp growth could be so
termed. About me stretched the Jungle.
over which greenish lurid atmosphere
brooded, and straight ahead lowered the
gaunt mansion, a rambling pile of somber
white, with numberless vacant windows
staring at me from the leahess trees about
it. Only one other clump of trees appeared
above the canes and brush, and that |
knew by intuition was the graveyard.
| think l should have turned back had
not shame impelled me forward.
My progress from this point was even
more difficult than it had been hitherto,
tor the trail at the end of the wood termi-
mated abruptly in a gut of the swamp /;
however, managed to keep on by walking
on hammocks, pushing through clumps of
bushes, and wading as best could
1t never once struck me that it must be
getting late. l had become so accustomed
10 the gloom of the woods that the more
open ground appeared quite light to me,
and L had not paid any attention to the
black cloud that had been for some time
gathering overhead, or to the darkening
atmosphere.
l suddenly became sensible that it was
going to rain. However, l was so much
eugrossed in the eRdeavor to get on that
even then / took little note of it. The
nearer | came to the house the more it ar
rested my attention, and the more weird
and uncanny it looked. Canes and bushes
grew up to the very door; the window
shutters hung from the hinges the broken
portico had fallen away from the wall,
while the wide door stood slightly aiar,
giving to the place singularly CHASTITY ap-
pearance somewhat akin to the color which
sometimes fingers on the face of O corpse.
In my progress wading through the swamp
| had gone around rather to the side of the
house toward where supposed the pawn"
itself to lie.
| was now quite near to it, and striking a
little less miry ground, as pushed my way
through the bushes and canes which were
higher than my head, became aware that
l was very near the thicket that marked
the graveyard, just beyond which knew
the pond itself lay. ! was somewhat
startled, for the cloud made it quite dusky,
and, stepping on a long piece OF rotten tim
Der lying on the ground, parted the bushes
to look down the pond. AS did so the
rattle of chain grated on me, and glanc-
ing up through the cane before me appeared
a heavy upright timber with an arm or
cross-beam stretching from it, from which
dangled a long chain almost rusted away.
| knew by instinct that | stood under the
gallows where the murderer of No Haid
Pawn had expiated his dreadful crime.
His corpse must have fallen Just where
stood. | started back appalled,.
Just then the black cloud above me was
parted by vivid flame and a peal of thun-
der seemed to rive the earth
turned in terror, but before had gone
fifty yards the storm was upon me, and in
stinctively made fo- the only refuge that
was at hand. 1t was dreadful alternative.
but l did not hesitate. Outside | was not
even sure that my life was safe. And with
extraordinary swiftness / had made nv
way through the broken iron fence that Law
rusting in the swamp, had traversed the
yard, all grown up as it was to the very
threshold, had assembled the sunken steps,
! crossed the rotten portico and entered the
open door.
A lonT, dark hall stretched before me,
extending, as well as | could judge in the
gloom, entirely across the house. A num-
Der of doors, some shut, some ajar, opened
on the hall on one side; and broad, dark
stairway assembled on the other to the upper
story. The walls were black with mold
At the far end large bow window, with
all the glass gone, looked out on the waste
of swamp, unbroken save by the clump OF
trees in the graveyard, and just beside this
window was break where the dark stair
( case descended to the apartments below
The whole place was in state of advanced
decay; almost the entire plaster1ng had
fallen with the damp, and the hall pre-.
scented scene of desolation that beggars
description.
| was at last in the haunted house
! The rain, driven by the wind, poured in
| - i